Minnesota State Championship Series

The picture to the left pretty much sums up the conditions.  It was a beautiful day to play in the sand.  Thanks Buck Hill for coming to the rescue, and Thank you to Dr. Maria and Elisa for performing ART for the racers. I hope everyone get a chance to see them.

Cal Bean wins the crazy award for Sundays race at Spirit Mountain in Duluth.  Cal finished 8th in Citizen,  55th in Sport (8th in his age group), and then rode the Comp race as well.  Nice Job Cal.  I have heard people love the Powder Monkey course but that takes the cake.

Good luck to all the endurance junkies heading to Nine Mile this weekend!

The photos are all posted, as usual, if you have any questions please shoot me an email and I will be happy to help.

Thanks to the powers that be that make Red Wings' Memorial Classic such a great event.   Capturing everyones moments from the race brought back memories of my race last year.  Trying to hang on to Beth Shedds heels through the "Washing Machine", also known as the "woop de woop"  section.  The seering heat of the double track. The fun punchy climbs.  Its a great trail and a great addition to the MN Series.  It was also nice to have concessions at an event.  And talk about swag, did you see the trainers they were giving away?  Well done! 

On the photos side of things, I started taking series/multiple shots in some of the sections so check out all the fun images. 

If you are recapping your race and need that race photo to give your blog that extra special something, you have come to the right place.  Here is how you do it:

1.  Your on the Photo Site, you have clicked on the photo of yourself, it now shows on the right hand side of the screen. Above the photo you will find two buttons  "Share" & "Slideshow"

2. Click On the "Share" button, this will open you to a new page with the image URLs.

3.  Choose what size photo you would like and just simply click on the URL, it will automatically copy for you.

4. Paste the URL in the "Add a image from the web" Section of your photo applet.

You can also add a slideshow, however it creates a slideshow of the complete album.

What a turn out for MNSCS #4. The race director said they had 50 more racers compared to last year.  The love for Mount Kato is starting to spread!   Mount Kato had the largest Womens Start I have seen in my three years of snapping MNSCS race photos.  Nice job ladies!! Way to represent!!  Congratulations to all the racers as well!!

In other news:  My  photosite has done some recent updates to the shopping cart. The system is more intuitive to your needs and will look alittle different.  All the options are still available to you. Please take alittle extra time to review the new system and contact me if you have any questions d.schoppe@comcast.net.

For all the other photographers out there, we would love to see your photos.  You can share them with us HERE. Thank you to everyone who supports the racers, takes photos, volunteers, and just comes out for a fun day!  The races wouldnt be the same without YOU!

What a great weekend for a race. The weather was in the upper 70's with light rain showers on and off throughout the day to cool everyone down.  Well except for maybe the comp and expert racers. They got the brunt of the rain but it looked like most of the riders were having a great time out there.  Congratulations to Sam O for taking first in the Expert Race!

I have been getting some questions on the photo site so I will try to answer them here:

1.   How do I get to the rest of the photos?       Click on the "More Memorable Moments" link below to browse the full gallery of photos from each event.

2.   How do I purchase a photo?       When you are viewing photos, the larger photo is on the right hand side of the page. Above the photo you will find a small shopping cart with the words  "Buy: This photo"  click there and it will take you through the process of purchasing the photo.

Also, after clicking on the shopping cart, it opens the purchasing page.  There are three tabs at the top "Prints", "Merchandise", and "Downloads"

-The "Prints" section allows you to choose virtually any size hardcopy photo.

-The "Merchandise" section offers items like Magnets, Coffee Mugs, TShirts, bags and other items to impose your photos on.

-The "Downloads" section allows you to purchase the electronic version of the photos. There are full resolution downloads for all your needs and low resolution (1 MP) downloads available for blogging without the watermark.

3. Can I change the photo before purchase?  You are able to crop the photo during the checkout process. This allows you to keep as much or as little of the photo as you would like.  There is also the availability to change the photo to black and white and sepia.   If there are any additional changes you would like to see, please email me and I will see what I can do.

If you have further questions please email me. Thank you all for your support and congratulations to all the racers!!

The second race of the season has come and gone.  The trail was greasy but I hear in fairly good shape. With rain forecasted once again, we lucked out with a beautiful 70 degree day (- the humidity that is).   

All the photos from the event have been posted. Thank you to all the racers and congratulations on finishing the second race of the 2008 season!

We've made it through the first race of the season. A full day of rain prior to the event left us questioning if the race would go on. It turned out to be a beautiful day,  the course was 90% rideable with a nice muddy area and some wind in the open prairie, it was quite the challenge.

Be sure to check out  the Erik's Spring Cup Albums for some featured photos from the event.

Additional photos can be found at the link "More Memorable Moments" on the bottom of the page.  You can view, purchase and download photos from there.

 Thank You